Lost in Lewis' Paradise

Where have I been?

Wandering. Again.

I had just started reading That Hideous Strength when I realized how central the story of The Fall & Satan's appeal to human hubris might be to Lewis' Space Trilogy.

I didn't want to proceed without seeing what Lewis had to say about Milton's Paradise Lost. How much influence did it have on Perelandra? Just about every writer I admire seems to pay their respect to it.

So from Perelandra I wandered to his Preface to Paradise Lost (and have read it almost 3 times now) to Milton's epic poem then back to Melville's Moby Dick (the greatest fishing yarn ever penned) & Billy Budd, interlaced with diversions to review my notes from Shelley's Frankenstein which opens with that defiant quote from Paradise Lost:

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?

Or in Chapter 15 where the creature confronts his maker while recounting its discovery of Paradise Lost among some books lost in the woods:

But Paradise Lost excited different & far deeper emotions. I read it, as I had read the other volumes which had fallen into my hands, as a true history. It moved every feeling of wonder & awe that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting. I often referred to several situations, as their similarity struck me, to my own.

Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to my other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect.

He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy & prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his Creator; he was allowed to converse with, and acquire knowledge from, beings of a superior nature; but I was wretched, helpless, and alone.

Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.

Then finding some of Frankenstein's own papers, discovers "the disgusting circumstances" of its own "accursed origin" bearing "the minutest description of my odious & loathsome person":

I sickened as I read. "Hateful day when I received life!" I exclaimed in agony. "Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful & alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire & encourage him; but I am solitary & abhorred."

This is the way I read.

Or wander.

Still I'm not lost.

To be continued...